Maddow: North Carolina voter suppression efforts are succeeding

Rachel Maddow analyzes recent developments in North Carolina, showing without a doubt that the Republican Party is systematically suppressing votes statewide, entrenching themselves politically at the expense of democracy itself.

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The most damning thing about all of this is how easy it is for power to entrench itself. And that half of your nation doesn’t even see this cheat-to-win as a trend, with the chaff they keep throwing up about electoral fraud necessitating stricter ID regulations, as though that is actually happening. All you have to do is lie repeatedly about statistical improbabilities to the point of making them into bogeymen and you can get laws in place that undercut democracy itself. Scare the populace into taking extraordinary measures against things that simply aren’t happening, and you get severe miscarriages of justice.

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Maddow: North Carolina voter suppression efforts are succeeding
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7 thoughts on “Maddow: North Carolina voter suppression efforts are succeeding

  1. 1

    sorta kinda the argument made by the rape apologists. that rape is statistically so rare. so they feel like their ‘vote’ is being repressed?

    I wouldn’t be surprised rhat they see an equivalence despite differences in where the evidence leads.

  2. 2

    As disgusting as this is, it could provoke a backlash which ends up benefitting Democrats. If you can get those who have been disenfranchised angry enough, they might be motivated enough to get registered and vote when they might have otherwise.

  3. 3

    As disgusting as this is, it could provoke a backlash which ends up benefitting Democrats. If you can get those who have been disenfranchised angry enough, they might be motivated enough to get registered and vote when they might not have otherwise.

  4. 5

    @MattG–

    Problem is, with the gerrymandering that has already taken place, last election cycle NC voters chose majority democratic candidates and the republicans still took most seats across the state. Then add voter restrictions on top, and you’ve got little recourse as a liberal. Even when we hold the majority of votes, we can’t seem to elect candidates. That’s why the NC GOP doesn’t give two flying fucks how mad we folks from left to center get over the hundreds of regressive bills they’ve tried and/or succeeded in pushing through since last year, because they’ve essentially painted us democrats into a corner. There’s a couple blue areas left to give NC an air of respectability but the rest are gone.

    My county is still blue by population, but we’re now red by districts after my old voting district got split in two.

    Some light reading: http://www.dailykos.com/blog/DKos%20Asheville/

  5. 7

    Backlash may well have helped Obama in 2012, and I certainly hope it will continue.

    What gets me about all this “fraud prevention” crap is that, to the extent that there is voter fraud, it’s with absentee ballots. Which are cast on average by economically advantaged people who tend to vote Republican.

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